Biography on Dr. Benjamin Spock

620 Words2 Pages

Dr. Benjamin McLane Spock was born on May 2, 1903. Dr. Spock was an American pediatrician and author of The Common Sense Book on Baby and Child Care. His book has been sold around the world and translated into 42 languages. Dr. Spock wanted parents everywhere to just go with their common sense, because he believed that it was the right and proper way to care for children. Dr. Spock made a lasting impact on mothers everywhere. Many say that Dr. Spock’s book is second best to the Bible in popularity. Generation after generation is being raised off of Dr. Spock’s beliefs and customs.
Dr. Spock is the oldest of 6 siblings and was born into a prosperous family in New Haven Connecticut. Dr. Spock’s father was a lawyer and his mother had a distinguished background. Spock ended up attending Yale University in 1921. At Yale, Dr. Spock met the love of his life Jane Cheney. Dr. Spock was in the Paris Olympics in 1924 where he won the gold medal for the United States in rowing crew. Benjamin Spock went to Yale Medical School in hopes of becoming a children’s doctor. After Spock got married he transferred to Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, where he graduated as the top of his class.
As Spock worked with children as a pediatrician, he learned that a lot of the questions most parents asked were related back to psychological issues. This made Spock believe that all pediatricians should have some background knowledge on psychology. Soon Dr. Spock believed that it was better encourage the children, rather than have a harsh, rigid, and moralistic approach like many parents try to take. Dr. Spock wanted to change the child-rearing practices of America. Benjamin thought what better way to get his ideas across to the...

... middle of paper ...

...is life, but off his ideas and research. Spock was very aware of the fact him and his own parents had failed to follow the ideals from his book, but Spock had experienced the challenges of rigorous child-rearing methods from his past and wanted to change that. In the end Spock didn’t want any children to have the childhood he had, but unfortunately Spock failed to realize that not everyone is the same and that each individual person has a different outlook from an experience. Spock to child the way of raising children, but all he simply did was try.

References
Benjamin Spock. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 11:46, Dec 12, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/benjamin-spock-9490919.
(n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.vision.org/visionmedia/biography-benjamin-spock/583.aspx
(n.d.). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Spock

Open Document